402. APPLICATIONS TO MATERIALS TESTING mean stress on the crack growth cn pe eo 100 \? ee ela a wri) 7 ay= 0.078 m = 78 mm ; (0.078)"°*" — (0.0005)-°7" 1 (=B/2) + 1)(6.9 x 10-7)(180)°(7)°/7(1.12)° __ (0.078) "°* — (0.0005) = —157.4 x 10-6 N, = 261,000 cycles 12-11 EFFECT OF STRESS CONCENTRATION ON FATIGUE Fatigue strength is seriously reduced by the introduction of a stress raiser such as a notch or hole. Since actual machine elements invariably contain stress raisers like fillets, keyways, screw threads, press fits, and holes, it is not surprising to find that fatigue cracks in structural parts usually start at such geometrical irregular- ities. One of the best ways of minimizing fatigue failure is by the reduction of avoidable stress raisers through careful design and the prevention of accidental stress raisers by careful machining and fabrication. While this section is con- cerned with stress concentration resulting from geometrical discontinuities, stress concentration can also arise from surface roughness and metallurgical stress raisers such as porosity, inclusions, local overheating in grinding, and decarburi- zation. The effect of stress raisers on fatigue is generally studied by testing specimens containing a notch, usually a V notch or a circular notch. It has been shown in Chap. 7 that the presence of a notch in a specimen under uniaxial load introduces three effects: (1) there is an increase or concentration of stress at the root of the notch; (2) a stress gradient is set up from the root of the notch in toward the center of the specimen; (3) a triaxial state of stress is produced. The ratio of the maximum stress to the nominal stress is the theoretical stress-concentration factor K,. As was discussed in Sec. 2-15, values of K, can be computed from the theory of elasticity for simple geometries and can be de- termined from photoelastic measurements for more complicated situations. Most of the available data on stress-concentration factors have been collected by Peterson." ‘The effect of notches on fatigue strength is determined by comparing the S-N curves of notched and unnotched specimens. The data for notched specimen are "RE. Peterson, “Stress-Concentration Design Factors,” John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1974,FATIGUE OF METALS 403 usually plotted in terms of nominal stress based on the net section of the specimen. The effectiveness of the notch in decreasing the fatigue limit is expressed by the fatigue-strength reduction factor, or fatigue-notch factor, K, This factor is simply the ratio of the fatigue limit of unnotched specimens to the fatigue limit of notched specimens. For materials which do not exhibit a fatigue limit the fatigue-notch factor is based on the fatigue strength at a specified number of cycles. Values of K, have been found to vary with (1) severity of the notch, (2) the type of notch, (3) the material, (4) the type of loading, and (5) the stress level. The values of Ky published in the literature are subject to consider- able scatter and should be carefully examined for their limitations and restric- tions. However, two general trends are usually observed for test conditions of completely reversed loading. First, K, is usually less than K,, and second, the ratio of K,/K, decreases as K, increases. Thus, very sharp notches (high K,) have less effect on fatigue strength than would be expected from their high value of K,, The notch sensitivity of a material in fatigue is expressed by a notch-sensitiv- ity factor q K,-1 (12-27) Equation (12-27) was chosen so that a material which experiences no reduction in fatigue due to a notch (K, = 1) has a factor of q = 0, while a material in which the notch has its full theoretical effect (K, = K,) has a factor of q = 1. However, q is not a true material constant since it varies with the severity and type of notch (Fig. 12-19), the size of specimen, and the type of loading. As Fig. 12-19 indicates notch sensitivity increases with tensile strength. Thus, it is possible in certain circumstances to decrease fatigue performance by increasing the hardness or tensile strength of a material. 1.9) ° * os > 0.6 S “ Quenched and tempered stee! 5 Anneoled ond normalized steel § 04) ‘Aluminum alloy 3 02] 2 ° 0 05 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 60 mm Figure 12-19 Variation of notch-sensitivity index with notch radius for materials of different tensile strength. (After R. E. Peterson, in G. Sines and J. L. Waisman (eds., “Metal Fatigue,” p. 301, McGraw- Hill Book Company, New York, 1959. By permission of the publishers.)404 APPLICATIONS TO MATERIALS TESTING Table 12-1 Some values of Neuber’s constant p” Strength level, p's Material MPa mm Steel ous 0.07 001 Aluminum. 2 alloy 06 04 Another approach to notch sensitivity in fatigue was advanced by Neuber.! He expressed the fatigue stress concentration factor as (12-28) where r= contour radius at the root of the notch p’ =a material constant related to the strength of the metal. See Table 12-1 for some values of p’. The above relationships express the fact that, for large notches with large radii, K, is almost equal to K,, but for small notches we find K, < K, for soft ductile metals and K, higher for stronger metals. We say these are more notch sensitive. In the absence of data, an estimate of the notched fatigue strength can be made by constructing a straight line on a semilogarithmic S-N plot from the ultimate tensile strength at a life of one cycle to the unnotched fatigue strength divided by K, at 10° cycles. For design purposes, in ductile materials K, should be applied only to the alternating component of stress and not to the steady component of stress when 6, # 0. For fatigue of brittle materials K, should also be applied to the steady component of stress. Example A shaft with a transverse oil hole is subjected to a fluctuating bending moment of +40 N m and an axial steady load of 20 kN. The diameter of the shaft is 12 mm and the diameter of the hole is 1.2 mm. This situation is shown in Fig. 2-21e, where a/d = 0.10 and K, = 2.2. If the shaft is made from steel with S, = 1310 MPa, then from Table 12-1 p’ = 0.01 mm 1H. Neuber, “Theory of Notch Stresses,” J. W. Edwards, Publisher, Incorporated, Ann Arbor, Mich. 1946